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The Unprecedented Audacity of the iBooks Author EULA — Apple just released iBooks Author, a free Mac app for creating digital books for the new version of iBooks. I haven't played with it much, but so far it looks like a very good tool. However, a curious thing happens when you go to export your work in iBooks format:
Discussion:
Business Insider, The Ed Bott Report Blog, SiliconFilter, 9to5Mac, PC World, Gizmodo, Business Insider, TUAW, The Next Web, GigaOM, LAPTOP Magazine, @segphault, Daring Fireball, Matt Gemmell, VentureBeat, L.A. Times Tech Blog, MacStories, MacRumors, iLounge, Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com and Mashable!
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Apple Unveils All-New iTunes U App for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch — Entire Courses from Top Universities Now Available in One App — Apple® today announced an all-new iTunes® U app, giving educators and students everything they need on their iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch® to teach and take entire courses.
Discussion:
The Register, 9to5Mac, The Next Web, Webomatica, BGR, Digital Trends, Fortune, dailywireless.org, CNN, Laughing Squid and MacRumors


Apple's New Math. Or: Why A $15 E-Book Equals a $75 Paper Book. — McGraw-Hill normally sells high-school textbooks for $75 a pop. Now it says it will sell electronic versions of the same books, via Apple, for $15 apiece. How can the publisher make that work?
Discussion:
GigaOM, CNET, Gizmodo, Techland, SplatF, Dice Blog Network, The Verge, The Next Web, 9to5Mac and TechCrunch


Apple announces new iPad textbook experience with iBooks 2 — On Thursday, Apple SVP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller took the stage to talk about education, and announced Apple's ambitious plan to reinvent the textbook. That plan includes iBooks 2, which Schiller called a “new textbook experience for the iPad.”


Apple announces free iBooks Author app for OS X for publishing books to the App Store
Discussion:
GigaOM, BetaNews, GigaOM, Macworld, Washington Post, TechCrunch, LAPTOP Magazine, 9to5Mac, WebProNews and MacStories, more at Mediagazer »

Apple's new iBook textbooks launch at $14.99 or less from partners Pearson, McGraw Hill …
Discussion:
Computerworld, TeleRead, The Verge, Apple, Fortune, GigaOM, MacStories, TechCrunch and The Next Web, more at Mediagazer »

Apple: 20,000 Education iPad Apps Developed; 1.5 Million Devices In Use At Schools
Discussion:
PandoDaily, MacRumors, TUAW, The Next Web, Between the Lines Blog, NBC Bay Area and ZDNet

Google Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2011 Results — Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced financial results for the quarter and the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011. — “Google had a really strong quarter ending a great year. Full year revenue was up 29% …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, Forbes, CNET, ReadWriteWeb, AllThingsD, SplatF, GigaOM, Mercury News, Between the Lines Blog, Search Engine Watch, SiliconFilter, Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, Tech Trader Daily, Engadget, TechCrunch, Mercury News, TechCrunch, Business Insider, The Verge, 9to5Google, Tech Trader Daily, Social Markets, The Next Web, Gizmodo, Mashable!, GeekWire, WebProNews, @ldignan, MobileSyrup.com, The Next Web and Neowin.net
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Larry Page Is Super Excited To Announce That Google+ Has 90 Million Users [Update: Engagement+] — The official numbers are in for Google's new social network, Google+. Beating out most previous third-party estimates that we've seen, the company said today that it now has 90 million users worldwide.
Discussion:
Marketing Land

Google: 250M Android devices activated, 11B Android Market app downloads
Discussion:
TechCrunch, 9to5Google and Electronista


FBI Charges Seven With Online Piracy — WASHINGTON—The Federal Bureau of Investigation moved against a group of suspected online pirates Thursday, targeting the popular file-sharing website megaupload.com a day after Washington lawmakers were besieged by complaints about legislation designed …
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Anonymous claims DOJ and record label site takedowns in response to MegaUpload suit — By all appearances, Anonymous isn't too happy with the Department of Justice's move to take down file sharing site MegaUpload today, because it's now claiming that it's knocked the DOJ's site off the internet …
Discussion:
rt.com, Gizmodo, @youranonnews, Ars Technica, VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, Hillicon Valley, @anonops, @tomwarren, @mmasnick and Geekosystem


Swizz Beatz's Resume: The History of a Multi-Tasker — In today's fluid economy it's not uncommon to have a second job. A third, fourth, or fifth job though, is something special. And when you're super-producer Swizz Beatz and you have a baker's dozen jobs at once, it's frankly less …


Surprising New Figure in the Piracy Wars? Swizz Beatz, Megaupload.com's Secret CEO
Discussion:
PC Magazine, New York Post, FACT magazine and BET.com

Justice Department calls MegaUpload an 'international organized criminal enterprise …
Discussion:
Ars Technica, Digital Trends and Computerworld

Summify Joins The Flock At Twitter! — You've probably noticed we've been quiet lately. Well, we're extremely excited to announce that Summify has been acquired by Twitter! I know, right? We can hardly believe it ourselves! — Roughly 2 years ago, we moved from Romania to Vancouver …
Discussion:
PC Magazine, Digital Trends, VentureBeat, The Verge, TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, CNET, The Next Web, Epicenter, Techvibes.com, Computerworld, Marketing Land, @randfish, @tamar, @johnhcook, Mashable!, AllThingsD, SlashGear and Xconomy
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Microsoft Reports Record Revenue: Up 5% To $20.9B, Earnings At $0.78 Per Share — Microsoft just reported its second quarter 2012 earnings with revenues of $20.9 billion, an 5% increase from the same period of the prior year. Microsoft's operating income, net income, and diluted earnings per share …
Discussion:
The Verge, AllThingsD, Ars Technica, PC World, BGR, VentureBeat, VentureBeat, BetaNews, Engadget, Electronista and SlashGear
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Microsoft Profit Tops Estimates on Xbox, Demand
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GeekWire, All about Microsoft Blog, TechFlash, CNET and 24/7 Wall St.


Amazon Kindle Fire: More Profitable Than Expected? — The Amazon Kindle Fire might be a more profitable product than you think. — RBC Capital analyst Ross Sandler reached that conclusion in a research note this morning, after he assessed the results of a proprietary survey of 216 Kindle Fire owners.
Discussion:
Fast Company, Geek.com, WebProNews and dailywireless.org, more at Mediagazer »
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Amazon Makes More Than $100 Off Each Kindle Fire
Discussion:
Electronista, VatorNews and AndroidGuys


Apple introduces us to Siri, the Killer Patent — On October 4, 2011Apple launched the iPhone 4S with Siri, just one day prior to Steve Jobs passing. Today, the first killer patent application behind Siri was published by the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Discussion:
AppleInsider, BGR, CNET, NBC Bay Area, WebProNews, PadGadget, msnbc.com and SEO by the Sea


On PIPA, Senate in talks to yank search — Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) are in discussions to exempt search-result blocking from the PROTECT IP Act, sources confirmed to POLITICO. — Kyl made the proposal to Leahy on Wednesday. The measure is one of the biggest sticking points …
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SOPA protest by the numbers: 162M pageviews, 7 million signatures
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MediaPost, ReadWriteWeb, Computerworld, Search Engine Watch, nytm.org and Bloomberg


Larry Page: Google should be like a family — In an exclusive Q&A, Google's co-founder and CEO explains how he built a No. 1 workplace — and why it matters. — Google also claimed the top spot on our list in 2007 and 2008 - making it the only three-time champion.
Discussion:
L.A. Times Tech Blog, Guardian, TechFlash, Larry Page, The Register, PC World, NBC Bay Area and Business Insider


Bing Maps to get Nokia branding on all devices - including rivals' — Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, has told Pocket-lint that we shall soon be seeing the Nokia brand name within other devices and not just the company's own phones. — “You'll starting seeing the word ‘Nokia’ on a map …
Discussion:
Business Insider, Search Engine Land, Engadget, Neowin.net, IntoMobile, Nokia Windows Phone, PhoneArena and Gizmodo UK


IBM's Q4 Revenue Up 2 Percent To $29.5B; Net Income Up 4 Percent To $5.5B — IBM just released fourth quarter and fiscal year 2011 earnings today. Non-GAAP earnings came in at $4.71, up 11 percent; GAAP earnings per share were $4.62 per share (up 11 percent) for the quarter.
Discussion:
CNET, BGR, The Tech Trade, Between the Lines Blog, paidContent, The Register, WebProNews, 24/7 Wall St. and 9to5Google


Introducing New Apps for Timeline — New timeline apps are now available from Foodspotting, Foodily, Ticketmaster, Pinterest, Rotten Tomatoes, Pose, Kobo, Gogobot, TripAdvisor, and others. You can now enhance your timeline with apps that help you tell your story, whether you love to cook, eat, travel, run, or review movies.
Discussion:
AllThingsD, AllThingsD, GeekWire, ReadWriteWeb, The Atlantic Wire, Facebook Developer Blog, Lost Remote, SocialTimes.com, The Not-So Private Parts, CNET, L.A. Times Tech Blog, TechCrunch, Forbes and blog.chron.com, Thanks:malliegator


Jerry Yang's Short Goodbye: The Official Letter — Yahoo filed the letter that Jerry Yang sent resigning from the board of directors, as well as all other positions at the company he co-founded 17 years ago. — (To liven it up, despite a vow to use less of them this year, I had to go with a LOLcat.)

A Word to the Resourceful — A year ago I noticed a pattern in the least successful startups we'd funded: they all seemed hard to talk to. It felt as if there was some kind of wall between us. I could never quite tell if they understood what I was saying.


Nike announces FitBit, JawboneUP competition ‘FuelBand’ — As consumers demand more from mobile health, Nike pours fuel on the fire — With everyone trying to uphold their New Year's resolutions — or resuscitate them — Nike took some time out on Thursday to announce a new tool to track …
Discussion:
PC World, Business Wire, Business Insider and NikeInc.com

EU to decide on Google, Motorola Mobility deal Feb 13 — (Reuters) - EU regulators set on Thursday a new February 13 deadline to decide whether to clear Google's takeover of U.S. handset maker Motorola Mobility after the Internet search engine came forward with new documents to support its case, the EU Commission said.
Discussion:
BGR, 9to5Google, Technologizer, AllThingsD and PhoneArena